Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is a lower-middle income economy according to the World Bank, and a UN-designated Least Developed Country. Its 2024 GDP of $1.87 billion accounts for 0.1% of the regional GDP of Southeast Asia. With a population of 1.4 million, Timor-Leste’s GDP per capita is $1,332, the lowest in the region.¹

From 2015 to 2024, 7,180 aid and development projects were implemented in Timor-Leste by 57 development partners, totalling $3.1 billion in official development finance (ODF).

Key trends

ODF disbursements including grants, loans, and other forms of assistance to Timor-Leste have remained stable from 2015 to 2024, averaging $308.3 million annually. ODF to Timor-Leste declined in 2024 to $256.7 million, its lowest level in the reporting period.

In absolute terms, Timor-Leste receives the least ODF in developing Southeast Asia, but the most relative to the size of its economy: ODF accounted for 14% of GDP in 2024, the highest ratio in the region. It receives 88% of its ODF through grants.

New commitments to Timor-Leste dropped in both 2023 and 2024, potentially indicating future declines.

Development partners

Australia is Timor-Leste’s primary development partner, accounting for 28% of its total ODF from 2015 to 2024. The United States, Japan, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) each made up about 10% of ODF to Timor-Leste over the 2015–24 period.

Australia provided a third of all ODF to Timor-Leste in 2024. Its ODF targets the government and civil society sector and is disbursed entirely through grants.

The United States’ support to Timor-Leste has grown over the last decade; its 2024 spending of $46 million more than doubled its 2015 figure and was up 5% on 2023. Disbursed exclusively through grants, it targets Timor-Leste’s government and civil society, education, and humanitarian aid sectors.

Japan’s support has remained mostly steady, though its focus has moved from transport and storage (53% of ODF in 2019) to health (40% of ODF in 2024). While Japan provided both concessional loans and grants to Timor-Leste through 2022, since then it has exclusively disbursed ODF through grants.

The ADB’s support has been declining; it contributed less than half of its 2015 spending in 2024. The ADB targets the transport and storage sector, primarily financing road projects, and disburses ODF to Timor-Leste through a mix of non-concessional loans, concessional loans, and grants.

Portugal, the former colonial power, has provided consistent ODF to Timor-Leste, in particular funding education programs through grants.

Sectors

Timor-Leste receives the most ODF in the government and civil society sector, which accounted for 24% of ODF between 2015 and 2024 and exceeded the regional average of 17%. Most of the funding is aimed at public sector institution capacity-building and employment policy development.

The second-largest ODF sector in Timor-Leste is transport and storage, dominated by road construction projects. However, the share of support for this sector has declined over time, falling from well over a quarter of ODF in 2019 to 8% in 2024.

The health and education sectors have become a growing focus, with support concentrated in basic nutrition and early childhood education.

Policy goals

The Southeast Asia Aid Map tracks ODF with integrated policy goals across three policy domains or cross-cutting themes (as distinct from sectors): climate action, gender equality, and disability inclusion.

From 2015 to 2024, 36% of Timor-Leste’s ODF incorporated climate action, 44% gender equality, and 12% disability inclusion — all above the regional average.

ODF incorporating climate action goals fell 57% in 2024, driven largely by a $36 million drop from Australia and a $7.5 million decrease from the ADB, Timor-Leste’s two largest providers of climate-related ODF.

Provision of intra-regional ODF

Timor-Leste is a very minor and irregular provider of intra-regional ODF. It contributed to humanitarian aid efforts in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Laos, and Myanmar in 2015, 2018, and 2019, and receives intra-regional ODF from Thailand and occasionally Indonesia. Its accession to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on 26 October 2025 may affect these flows, but any trend will only become apparent in future data.